World News Quick Take

AGENCIE

■ HONG KONG

Murder suspect captured

A murder suspect collected a HK$100,000 (US$12,800) ransom after he had allegedly already killed his victim, Hong Kong police said yesterday. Airport worker Yau Hiu-yin is believed to have been strangled sometime after she disappeared eight days ago and was already dead when a text message was sent to her boyfriend asking for a ransom for her release, police said. A 24-year-old decorator was arrested by police on Thursday night as he collected the cash at an arranged pick-up point.

■ JAPAN

Work stress cases increase

A record 268 people were officially recognized as suffering mental disorders from job-related stress and overwork in Japan for the year to March, the government said. It was up from 205 a year earlier and the second consecutive annual gain, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said in a survey released on Friday. Of them, 81 committed suicide for the year, also a record high, the ministry said. Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. A government survey recently found almost 20 percent of Japanese adults have considered killing themselves.

■ CAMBODIA

Water buffalo injures 15

A runaway water buffalo rampaged through Cambodia’s capital, injuring 15 people and damaging several cars and motorbikes, police said yesterday. The female buffalo ran through the crowded streets early on Friday morning, causing chaos before it was harnessed with ropes, local police chief Vy Sokhon said. “The buffalo looked very surprised and hit people along the streets,” he said. The buffalo will not be killed but authorities will keep it away from people, the police chief added.

■ MALDIVES

One diver dies, 10 injured

Authorities are investigating how a Russian tourist died and 10 others were injured while scuba diving, the tourism minister said yesterday. The 36-year-old Russian was among a group of tourists, including from Germany, Australia and Russia, taken casualty on Thursday while diving around a reef, minister Mahamood Shougee said. “The family of the victim has been notified, the other tourists have since been released. It was a very unfortunate incident,” Shougee said. The cause of the accident is unknown, though local news reports quoted diving instructors saying it was likely due to faulty equipment or breathing-related problems.

■ PAKISTAN

Police killed in blast

Two roadside bombs yesterday killed two policemen and a civilian in the northwest, police said. The policemen died when the vehicle they were traveling in was blown up in Nasir Bagh neighborhood of provincial capital Peshawar, local police officer Majid Khan said. The bomb, apparently detonated by remote control, also injured two police officers, he said, adding that a police investigation was underway. A bomb also struck a vehicle carrying civilians in Khyber tribal district just outside Peshawar, killing one person and injuring three.

■ AUSTRALIA

Pair spends night at sea

Two foreign scuba divers spent the night drifting in shark-infested waters after surfacing to find their Great Barrier Reef dive boat was 200m away and the current was carrying them further into the Pacific Ocean, news reports said yesterday. The pair — a 38-year-old British man and 40-year-old woman from the US — were alone in the ocean for 20 hours off the Whitsunday Islands on the east coast before being picked up at first light yesterday. Deputy Commissioner of Queensland Police Ian Stewart said the captain of the dive boat would be asked why the alarm was not raised until three hours after the divers went missing.